He is known for his works in parallel cinema, such as Hyderabad Blues (1998), Rockford (1999), Iqbal (2005), Dor (2006), Aashayein (2010), Lakshmi (2014), and Dhanak (2016).

In 2014, he received the Mercedes Benz Audience Award, for Best Narrative at the Palm Springs International Film Festival for Lakshmi.

Nagesh Kukunoor attended Osmania University in Hyderabad, India and received his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering.

It was perceived by Sanjay Arora, an independent film maker, to be realistic and one of the first movies to use Hyderabadi Urdu correctly.

[4] In contrast to his earlier work, it had a budget of ₹21 million (US$240,000) and featured established actors including Naseeruddin Shah, Juhi Chawla and Jackie Shroff.

[16][17] In 2006, Nagesh Kukunoor wrote and directed Dor, a drama film featuring Ayesha Takia, Gul Panag and Shreyas Talpade as the lead actors.

Zeenat (Gul Panag), on the other hand, faces the daunting task of saving the life of her husband, who is on trial for murder.

It was, however, his film Iqbal featuring Shreyas Talpade and Naseeruddin Shah, which won him a lot of critical acclaim and recognition for the simple yet heart rending script by Nagesh and the acting by all actors.

[18] His next film 8 x 10 Tasveer, an action-thriller featuring Akshay Kumar in the lead role fared poorly at the box office but was considered to be Nagesh's most self-reflective work to date.